Ogg Vorbis

It is similar to MP3, VQF, AAC, and other digital audio formats but with many advantages. It is an open source, free and unpatented format meaning anyone can use it, and the format promises better quality sound in smaller file sizes.

OGG audio is often found accompanying XviD etc. video content in an OGM container, and is abundant on the Internet for decent quality audio recordings, usually from CDs. Vorbis is a lossy compression, meaning that audio data is physically removed from the stream and cannot be recovered afterwards, the same type of compression used by MP3.

Where does the name come from?

The OGG is the name of the container created by Xiph.org which can house audio, video and metadata. The Vorbis is the specific compression scheme that is used for the audio contained in an OGG container.

Related Guides

How to play OGG files- This guide shows methods to play OGG audio files (with a .ogg extension) in a variety of media players, including adding support to Windows Media Player (WMP) and other DirectShow-based players. It also shows how to add support for informative tags embedded in some OGG container files.